No Rest for Biggles

Biggles #54

by W.E. Johns

Biggles is sent to investigate the disappearance of aircraft over Africa. The aircraft contained V.I.P.'s who were carrying with them secret documents. Pretending to carry a V.I.P. in his aircraft, Biggles is forced to land in Liberia after a secret weapon causes his plane to suffer engine failure. The picture on the dust cover of the book is Biggles' plane coming down. Ginger is in Biggles' plane and he escapes into the jungle whilst Biggles is captured and taken to meet Christophe, a black American who is planning to set up a black empire in Africa. He has stolen a new American plane containing the secret weapon and is using it to steal secrets to sell to the highest bidder, in order to finance his scheme. Biggles is put in a prison compound with other prisoners taken from planes captured earlier. Biggles discovers that behind Christophe are Iron Curtain agents, including Von Stalhein and Zorotov (from Biggles in the Blue). Meanwhile Ginger has made contact with Algy and Bertie and Algy has flown back to base to get a smaller aircraft as there are difficulties landing in the rough terrain. Von Stalhein offers the captured Biggles wire-cutters to escape in a deal that would see him double crossing both Christophe and Zorotov, whom Von Stalhein later shoots. Ginger and Bertie however, have found where Biggles is and get the wirecutters off Von Stalhein. With these, all the prisoners escape and steal a plane to get away. Biggles, Ginger and Bertie remain to destroy the aircraft with the secret weapon. Biggles sabotages Christophe's radio and leaves him without communications. Von Stalhein flies off to an unknown destination but returns with a small army and attacks Christophe and his men. Biggles uses a petrol and oil dump to destroy the secret weapon. With this gone, there is no reason for Von Stalhein to remain. An exhausted Biggles and Ginger, together with an injured Bertie fly to safety when Algy returns and they take with them Christophe who they find has only been wounded in the attack.

Genres: Adventure, Fiction, War, Historical

159 pages

First published March 15, 1956

About the author

Invariably known as Captain W.E. Johns, William Earl Johns was born in Bengeo, Hertfordshire, England. He was the son of Richard Eastman Johns, a tailor, and Elizabeth Johns (née Earl), the daughter of a master butcher. He had a younger brother, Russell Ernest Johns, who was born on 24 October 1895.

He went to Hertford Grammar School where he was no great scholar but he did develop into a crack shot with a rifle. This fired his early ambition to be a soldier. He also attended evening classes at the local art school.

In the summer of 1907 he was apprenticed to a county municipal surveyor where he remained for four years and then in 1912 he became a sanitary inspector in Swaffham, Norfolk. Soon after taking up this appointment, his father died of tuberculosis at the age of 47.

On 6 October 1914 he married Maude Penelope Hunt (1882–1961), the daughter of the Reverend John Hunt, the vicar at Little Dunham in Norfolk. The couple had one son, William Earl Carmichael Johns, who was born in March 1916.

With war looming he joined the Territorial Army as a Private in the King's Own Royal Regiment (Norfolk Yeomanry), a cavalry regiment. In August 1914 his regiment was mobilised and was in training and on home defence duties until September 1915 when they received embarkation orders for duty overseas.

He fought at Gallipoli and in the Suez Canal area and, after moving to the Machine gun Corps, he took part in the spring offensive in Salonika in April 1917. He contracted malaria and whilst in hospital he put in for a transfer to the Royal Flying Corps and on 26 September 1917, he was given a temporary commission as a Second Lieutenant and posted back to England to learn to fly, which he did at No. 1 School of Aeronautics at Reading, where he was taught by a Captain Ashton.

He was posted to No. 25 Flying Training School at Thetford where he had a charmed existence, once writing off three planes in three days. He moved to Yorkshire and was then posted to France and while on a bombing raid to Mannheim his plane was shot down and he was wounded. Captured by the Germans, he later escaped before being reincarcerated where he remained until the war ended.

Reviews

[Daniel Bratell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been picking later Biggles books with higher rating than others which makes me worry that the books I've yet to read might not be very good.

When I open a Biggles book I want airplanes and dogfights if possible, but they are adventure books in general and there is easier to write varied stories if you have some land to work with. Land with crocodiles and lions and rhinos maybe? Yes, we are once again in Africa.

Planes with Very Important People have disappeared mysteriously over Africa and Biggles, who is the only one not satisfied it was accidents, is going to investigate. And behold, there is a secret super weapon in the mix as well!

The book is, as all Biggles books, a quick and easy read. It's written by an Englishman born at a time when Britain ruled the world and was out to educate all the ignorant natives. Those ideas shine through, but I've seen much worse so I don't care much. It is a book of its time in many ways.

The book brings Algy and Ginger and Bertie along, though Algy is barely mentioned. I have a hard time liking Bertie and Ginger is somewhat stuck in the "eager 18 year old" mode, even though this must be 30-40 years since he first appeared.

[Kate Simner · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun if simple read, though I found it hard to get past the racial stereotyping of its time (1950s).

[Micah Ferguson · Rating 4 out of 5]

An action-packed story, that leaves you guessing after each chapter.

[Sonia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am reviewing the series as a whole, rather than the books individually
The Biggles series is great adventure fiction: we get high stakes, aerial action (in most of the books), and a hero who is endlessly loyal, competent, and calm under pressure.

I love the dogfights, recon missions, and wartime scenarios.

Where the series falls short is character depth. Some attitudes and simplifications reflect the period in which the books were written. There are very definitely dated elements, but considering the era the books were written - overall the series performs well. More than a few of the stories defy plausibility, but who doesn't love to curl up with a good adventure book or 10?

“Never say die.”

[Annise · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've never read any Biggles before, so I was faintly curious when I found a few of the books lying around my parents' house, and decided to give it a go. No Rest for Biggles is set after World War 2, when Biggles is an air detective, in this case investigating some missing aircraft in Africa. There's a lot of fun in the adventure story aspect, with abundant peril and heroism. It's the kind of writing that serves the story entirely, and doesn't stand out above it, which is actually a talent I admire in a writer, so no complaints there either. In many ways it was fun to read, but it was also very much of its time. The racial attitudes – while not the worst I've come across – just wouldn't fly in a modern equivalent. Even Biggles himself is a heroic stereotype that, while amusing, has become a little tired (even if it wasn't when Biggles was new). All in all, it was an amusing way to spend a couple of hours, but I probably wouldn't go much further than that.

[Edwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Er zijn een aantal vliegtuigen verdwenen, maar alleen maar als er belangrijke personen in zitten. Om dit een halt toe te roepen vliegt Biggles zelf de route die de andere toestellen ook namen. Na een tijdje merkt hij dat de koers van het vliegtuig begint af te wijken en wordt hij gedwongen te landen.

Erich van Stalhein doet in dit boek weer mee. Nadat hij ontdekte dat Biggles gevangen zit in een kamp en de volgende dag doodgeschoten zou worden, wil hij hem helpen ontsnappen, op voorwaarde dat Biggles hem mee neemt.

Biggles weet te ontsnappen, en lost na een paar spannende belevenissen, het geheim op.

De nodige stereo-typen worden weer voor de dag gehaald